A Paradigm Shift for Diversity Management

Author(s):  
Marilyn Y. Byrd ◽  
Claretha Hughes

This chapter brings to light how diversity management, a widely practiced management philosophy, has emerged from an original focus of equal opportunity and representation to a focus on a strategic and competitive business opportunity for organizations. The objective of this chapter is to represent diversity management as an organization-serving philosophy that has failed to uphold a personal, moral, and ethical obligation to the dignity and worth of its socially marginalized workforce. The goal is to recommend a paradigm shift for diversity management that responds to the social injustices experienced by marginalized employees in everyday lived career experiences that can be detrimental to career aspirations.

2018 ◽  
pp. 1233-1259 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marilyn Y. Byrd ◽  
Claretha Hughes

This chapter brings to light how diversity management, a widely practiced management philosophy, has emerged from an original focus of equal opportunity and representation to a focus on a strategic and competitive business opportunity for organizations. The objective of this chapter is to represent diversity management as an organization-serving philosophy that has failed to uphold a personal, moral, and ethical obligation to the dignity and worth of its socially marginalized workforce. The goal is to recommend a paradigm shift for diversity management that responds to the social injustices experienced by marginalized employees in everyday lived career experiences that can be detrimental to career aspirations.


2022 ◽  
pp. 275-302
Author(s):  
Marilyn Y. Byrd ◽  
Claretha Hughes

This chapter highlights how diversity management, a widely practiced management philosophy, has emerged from an original focus of equal opportunity and representation to a focus on a strategic and competitive business opportunity for organizations. However, the adverse, lived experiences that socially marginalized people experience are concealed within business goals despite having their “difference” marketed as a competitive advantage. The aim of this chapter is to conceptualize diversity management as having mutually inclusive, intersecting goals rather than mutually exclusive, competing goals.


Author(s):  
Marilyn Y. Byrd ◽  
Claretha Hughes

This chapter highlights how diversity management, a widely practiced management philosophy, has emerged from an original focus of equal opportunity and representation to a focus on a strategic and competitive business opportunity for organizations. However, the adverse, lived experiences that socially marginalized people experience are concealed within business goals despite having their “difference” marketed as a competitive advantage. The aim of this chapter is to conceptualize diversity management as having mutually inclusive, intersecting goals rather than mutually exclusive, competing goals.


Author(s):  
Judith K. Pringle ◽  
Glenda Strachan

This chapter presents a history of diversity management through the use of dichotomies that cross-cut the field. These are used as a framework to organize the evolution from equal opportunity policies and practices to managing diversity in organizations. We trace the shift from the social justice case for equality to the business case for managing diversity; from practitioners’ initiatives to academic research, from the US diversity discourse to many country contexts, from an emphasis on gender to ‘other’ demographic diversity dimensions, and from quantitative to qualitative research methodologies. The discussion demonstrates the complexity of combining historical and socio-political country contexts on organizational policies and practices. The resulting influences on an individual’s experiences of diversity management are as complex as are the partiality of theoretical explanations. We urge researchers to move beyond dualisms combining their strengths, to create transformative approaches. Altogether the continuing debates add to a vibrant field.


Author(s):  
Marilyn Fernandez

Does the burgeoning Indian Information Technology (IT) sector represent a deviation from the historical arc of caste inequality or has it become yet another site of discrimination? Those who claim that the sector is caste-free believe that IT is an equal opportunity employer, and that the small Dalit footprint is due to the want of merit. But they fail to consider how caste inequality sneaks in by being layered on socially constructed ‘pure merit’, which favours upper castes and other privileged segments, but handicaps Dalits and other disadvantaged groups. In this book, Fernandez describes how the practice of pure and holistic merit are deeply embedded in the social, cultural, and economic privileges of the dominant castes and classes, and how caste filtering has led to the reproduction of caste hierarchies and consequently the small Dalit footprint in Indian IT.


2021 ◽  
pp. 109634802098690
Author(s):  
Ashokkumar Manoharan ◽  
Michael J. Gross ◽  
Shruti R. Sardeshmukh

The topic of cultural diversity in hospitality firms has been somewhat neglected in the abundant research on cultural diversity in organizations. To overcome the gap, the purpose of the research was to examine the antecedents and outcomes of employing a culturally diverse workforce in hotels. Results from semistructured interviews showed there are four antecedents for the increase in cultural diversity and outcomes reflect significantly more benefits than challenges. Our findings suggest the benefits of cultural diversity come from the informational advantages, supporting the processing perspective. The challenges of diversity are rooted in the social categorization and in-group-out-group dynamics, lending support to the social identity theory. This study advances diversity literature based on research evidence of the various antecedents and outcomes in employing a culturally diverse workforce. Implications for diversity management are offered so the benefits may be sustained, and the challenges may be minimized in hospitality firms.


1999 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 372-388 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lupe Castañ ◽  
Claudine Sherrill

The purpose was to analyze the social construction of Challenger baseball opportunities in a selected community. Participants were 10 boys and 6 girls with mental and/or physical disabilities (ages 7 to 16 years, M = 11.31), their families, and the head coach. Data were collected through interviews in the homes with all family members, participant observation at practices and games, and field notes. The research design was qualitative, and critical theory guided interpretation. Analytical induction revealed five outcomes that were particularly meaningful as families and coach socially constructed Challenger baseball: (a) fun and enjoyment, (b) positive affect related to equal opportunity and feelings of “normalcy,” (c) social networking/emotional support for families, (d) baseball knowledge and skills, and (e) social interactions with peers.


Koedoe ◽  
2000 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Els ◽  
J. Du P. Bothma

In South Africa, communal rural community development has, for the most part, been viewed as an add-on, rather than as an integral value in the broad spectrum of conservation activities being practised in the country. This paper, therefore, argues for the reality-based adoption of an extension of existing conservation paradigms to incorporate the development of communal rural communities as an integral part of the overall wildlife conservation and management policy in South Africa. The answer to the seeming contradiction in the focus of wildlife conservation and rural development lies in the devel- opment of wildlife management programmes based on multi-disciplinary and multiinstitutional interaction, by also harnessing scientific knowledge and skills found in the social sciences. In this manner, the present largely lip service related to so-called com- munity participation in wildlife management can be changed into programmes which really achieve conservation-based community development enhancing survival for both the communities and their inherent natural resources.


Curationis ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
N.S. Gwele

Diversity management is not a numbers game. Diversity management is a holistic and strategic intervention aimed at maximizing every individual’s potential to contribute towards the realization o f the organization’s goals through capitalizing on individual talents and differences within a diverse workforce environment. Managing interpersonal relationships within a diverse workforce environment presents a number of challenges related to changes in the social, legal and economic landscape, individual expectations and values as well as the inevitable change in organizational culture (Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development 2005: 1-7). Whether or not organizations are effective in managing diversity is a function of senior managements’ commitment, and the perceived centrality of diversity management by all those who populate the institution’s workspace. Above all it should be clear to all employees, irrespective of race, gender, or vocational/professional status, that each and every one of them has something of value to contribute towards the realization of the institution’s mission and goals. It is crucial to determine clear and manageable success indicators, focusing not only on compliance with legal obligations to include and/or increase the number of employees from the underrepresented and designated groups, but also on strategic intervention strategies to be used to promote and nurture individual talent and potential toward the realization of both individual aspirations and organizational goals re-quality patient outcomes.


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